A drive assistance picture generator disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example, is known as a technique for performing predetermined image processing to facilitate a driver's view when an image captured by a camera provided to a vehicle is displayed on an onboard display device. This drive assistance picture generator divides the monitor screen into two parts, and, on the one hand, removes lens distortion from the image captured by the side camera to display the corrected image so that straight lines are displayed as straight lines. On the other hand, the generator displays the images that have been converted so as to appear as images from a virtual camera disposed in the air above the side mirror. The pictures are displayed to provide readily discernable images to the driver when the vehicle is moving to the side.
Patent Document 2 describes an onboard imaging system for monitoring that can capture a wide view of an area around the vehicle body using a single lens group, and that can provide, in a simple manner, accurate and sufficient information to the driver on the basis of the image. This onboard imaging system for monitoring is provided with distortion correction means for correcting distortion of image information and is adapted to produce undistorted planar image information using the correction means so that the driver can immediately perceive the depth and determine the size and other factors of objects.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-194071
Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2004-159186